Nude by the Window 

Alessandro Mastro-Valerio created this etching, "Nude by the Window," offering a glimpse into a private, contemplative moment. The figure is seen with her back toward us, positioned before a window that blurs the boundary between interior and exterior worlds. The window here serves as a profound symbol, echoing throughout art history as a motif of transition, of looking out from one's enclosed reality towards the possibility of something beyond. Consider the window as a liminal space found in Renaissance paintings, where it often signified a spiritual opening, a conduit to divine insight, or a longing for the infinite. The open gesture of the hand against the glass evokes a sense of longing. It touches upon our collective memory, reminiscent of similar gestures in earlier art depicting figures reaching out to the divine or grappling with existential boundaries. The window motif, thus, becomes a powerful vessel carrying our deepest emotions.